Medtner: Violin Sonatas 1 & 3 (Epica)

The 1938 Third Violin Sonata, Sonata Epica, by Russian composer Nikolai Medtner is one of those pieces which determinedly takes you on an absorbing, extended journey but which, in spite of the interest of the moment-by-moment detail, can leave you feeling unsure exactly where you’ve been, or why. At over three-quarters of an hour, it also may leave you wondering why it all takes so long. The always capable Chloë Hanslip and Igor Tchetuev don’t manage to keep the music consistently on track, but they show a surer grasp of the First Violin Sonata of 1901. Here Medtner’s indulgently ruminative, sometimes lavishly decorative, late-romantic manner is more focused and to the point, and more clearly goal-oriented, too. url.ie/4qdb